Game 41: Spurs face another 3-game losing streak after blowout loss in Miami

(1) Struggling offense fueling issues on defense (2) A rough 7-game stretch (3) Player observations

Photo credit: Reginald Thomas II, Spurs.com

Entering the Game

The San Antonio Spurs were without Jeremy Sochan once again. The Miami Heat were favored by 3.5 points and missing Josh Richardson.

This the Story of a Game

This was very much like the Spurs’ last game against Memphis. The Spurs started off playing well early, building a 12-point lead in the opening quarter. In the second quarter, the Spurs’ offense went cold, scoring just 11 points in the quarter. Still, it was only a 5-point game going into halftime. In the third quarter, the Heat made an adjustment defensively (more below) and that led to Miami scoring 46 points in the quarter on the other end. The game was basically over at that point, with the Spurs in a 24-point hole going into the final quarter. The Spurs made a mini-run in the fourth, getting the Heat lead down to 14 for a possession, but Miami answered back and with 2 minutes left, Spurs acting Head Coach Mitch Johnson pulled the starters, and the Spurs lost by 21 points.

“Select communication, it’s been a really big issue for us this year,” said Coach Johnson after the game. “I think our offense played into it, and that happens, our offense and defense are all tied together, but I think we got into a run of no pass, one pass, quick shots. We miss those, the game gets going like this (waves finger left and right), similar to the two Memphis games where we’ve had these stretches where they made some shots. They made a lot of shots. There were quite a few possessions where it felt like the defense felt pretty good in the halfcourt at times, and they made some shots. And we had some breakdowns at the end of possessions also, which is frustrating, when you guard for 17 seconds, and then communication breakdown - someone goes backdoor, someone falls asleep, loses attention to detail, but the offense I think in the stretch as a whole, was probably our biggest issue in terms of trying to score and quick-score our way back into the game. And that’s something that I think we have to better at, and I have to be better at of continuing to let that happen in the last three games.”

After the Loss

The loss drops the Spurs to 19-22 overall (still 12th out West), 7-12 on the road, and 3-6 against the Eastern Conference. The Spurs are once again facing a season long 3-game losing streak and they’ve fallen three games below .500 for the first time this season.

The Spurs have trailed by 15 points in almost half their games this season (49% of the season). When trailing by 15 points, the Spurs are now 4-16.

Up Next

The Spurs will have three days off, but will travel across the Atlantic to Paris, France, where they’ll meet another winning team in the Indiana Pacers (24-19, 5th out East) on Thursday.

Shot Location Scoring, Spurs Box Score, and The Math Game

Here are the three items in this postgame edition:

• (1) Struggling offense fueling issues on defense

• (2) A rough 7-game stretch

• (3) Player observations

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(1) Struggling offense fueling issues on defense

During the second quarter, the Spurs shot 5-of-25 from the floor, 1-of-10 from three, and they only got to the free throw line once. Missing so many shots meant their transition defense was going to be tested, and that’s just what happened. The Heat bench players got going late in the second by getting quick baskets off Spurs misses.

After halftime, the Heat came out with a similar strategy the Memphis Grizzlies used against the Spurs in the last two games. Miami had Kel’el Ware start the second half so he could guard Victor Wembanyama. They now had Bam Adebayo guarding Stephon Castle, and since Castle isn’t an outside threat yet in his career, Bam was able to roam the paint to provide help defense on Wemby, or anyone else taking the ball inside.

With the Spurs shooting 3-of-11 from three, Miami started to push the pace on misses to get looks without the Spurs being in the halfcourt. Even on some of the Spurs’ makes inside, Miami still pushed the ball up the floor quickly to get looks inside, or they used drive-and-kick action to get shooters looks. Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, and Nikola Jovic benefited most from the Heat pushing the pace in the quarter.